Chapter 32
“You do not even know the names of your seelie allies?” Cuan stared at Betty, aghast. “Let alone where they can be found?”
Betty spread her hands, looking grim. “They’re incredibly secretive, and understandably so. They’re going against the decrees of the seelie ruling council just by communicating with the Wild Hunt, let alone helping us to smuggle humans into seelie territories.”
“We have a friend who’s a fae hound, down in the city of Brighton,” Hope put in. “We talk to Michael, he talks to someone in your realm, they leave a message at a dead-drop location…and if we’re very lucky, the seelie send a response back the same way.”
They were all packed into Tamsin’s small…he had no word for the room. It was something like a tiny, intimate reception hall, if such a thing was designed for comfort rather than to impress.
Hope and Betty sat together on a low, deeply padded piece of furniture, shoulder-to-shoulder, thigh-to-thigh. Now that he was no longer distracted by the threat of having his lungs pulled through his ribs by steel hooks, it was obvious that the pair were fated mates.
Daisy was cross-legged on the hearth-rug, looking as plump and harmless as a nesting hen. Cuan, having not forgotten her pain-hooks, was still maintaining a respectful distance from her.
The small, narrow-faced woman called Jack leaned on a wall nearby. She toyed with her hammer, staring at him as though he was a crooked nail. He had the distinct impression that she was still reserving judgment on him.
At least the final woman, who Betty had introduced as Cathy, had abandoned her frying pan. Without being asked, she’d made hot drinks for them all. This turned out to involve the small beans that he’d pilfered earlier. Sadly, the bitter black concoction had proved to smell better than it tasted.
Cuan put his steaming mug down before he broke it. He clenched his gauntleted hands on his knees, fighting for calm. He was painfully aware that it was perilously close to midnight.
Shining Ones, keep Tamsin safe.
He could only pray that Morcant would not snatch her away the minute the appointed hour passed. Instinct howled that he should rush back to her now, now, but he held back the urge to reach for his callstone.
This was likely his only chance to speak with the Wild Hunt women. He had to wring all the information he could from them.
Tamsin’s life depended on it.
“Does it matter that we don’t know exactly where the seelie were going to take Tamsin?” Cathy asked. “Couldn’t Cuan just escort her to their lands anyway?”
“It’s got to be better than leaving her in the hands of evil psychic vampire elves,” Daisy agreed. She shot Cuan an apologetic glance. “Uh, no offense.”
“None taken, Mistress Daisy,” he said, rather wryly. “Though I would suggest that you refrain from referring to any other high sidhe as ‘elves’ to their faces, should you be unfortunate enough to encounter any.”
“That was the part of that description you objected to?” Cathy murmured.
“We’re getting off-track,” Betty said. She sighed. “Again. Focus, people. We are seriously short on time here.”
“Agreed.” Cuan looked around at them all. “Doubtless you think I am biased, but I sincerely believe that Tamsin would be in even greater peril if I blindly took her into seelie lands. Even if I managed to get her across the border without being shot in the process, she would likely fall into the hands of one of their war bands in short order.”
“Which would not be good,” Betty agreed. “The Summer Knights are not sympathetic to humans. We need a better plan.”
“Well, it would be a lot easier to come up with one if all this wasn’t completely new to most of us,” Jack grumbled. She shot Betty and Hope a pointed look. “You two should have told us about the fae months ago, not just when Tamsin went missing.”
“You’re our friends,” Daisy said, turning wounded blue eyes on the hellhounds as well. “We trust you. I thought you trusted us too.”
Betty, to her credit, looked a little chagrined. “It’s not a matter of trust. Shifters in general aren’t allowed to tell normal humans what we are. And the Wild Hunt is even more secretive. Even most shifters don’t know what we really do. Or that the fae exist, for that matter.”
“Anyway, it’s kind of a hard thing to work into casual conversation,” Hope said, flashing a small, wry smile. “Hello, we’re your new neighbors, nice to meet you, sorry in advance for all the howling, please let us know if you need any help chasing gremlins out of your cabbages.”
“There are gremlins too?” Daisy sounded delighted, which made it clear that she had never seen one of the creatures. “Can you chase them into my cabbages?”
Cuan cleared his throat. “I apologize for the rudeness, but I am truly very short on time.”
“Right. Let’s think this through logically.” Jack frowned down at her hammer, as though wishing she could bash a solution out of someone. “We can’t bring Tamsin back here, because the curse means she’ll die. We can’t take her to the seelie, because she’ll end up in the wrong hands. And we definitely can’t leave her with the unseelie. What does that leave?”
There was a small, unpleasant silence.
“There has to be something,” Cathy said. “What if—what if we all went back through the portal? We’ve got iron, after all. Could wehelp Cuan protect Tamsin?”